Dam height decision left to PM

People who read this also read:

Narmada dam splitting families apart

Sardar Sarovar Project has not just uprooted people from their ancestral land but has also tore apart their family ties.

• Villagers rally for Narmada dam
• Patkar spearheads people's satyagraha
• Patkar, NBA activists detained
• Narmada flashback: Expletive experience

Featured Blog

Sagarika Ghose

Red Letter Day

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• Narmada dam splitting families apart
• Villagers rally for Narmada dam
• Patkar spearheads people's satyagraha
• Patkar, NBA activists detained
• Narmada flashback: Expletive experience

Keywords: narmada bachao andolan, sardar sarovar dam

New Delhi:Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take the final decision on whether work to raise the Sardar Sarovar dam’s height should be stopped or not.

Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz on Saturday recommended to the Prime Minister that work be stopped after a meeting of the review committee of the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) failed to reach a decision in Delhi.

The six-member committee was split equally. The BJP chief ministers of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan were against stopping work at the dam, which they said was "Gujarat's lifeline".

Soz, Environment Minister A Raja and Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh opposed them and tabled a resolution which recommended that work be suspended till affected people are rehabilitated.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at the Central government and accused it of giving in to the demands of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), which is protesting in Delhi against raising the dam height.

Modi said he would go on a 51-hour fast at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad from Sunday against the Centre. The NBA’s office in Vadodara was ransacked and pro-dam agitators broke furniture and tried to set the office ablaze.

Decide soon: Medha tells PM

NBA leader Medha Patkar, who is in a critical condition in a Delhi hospital, announced that she would continue her 16-day-old hunger strike and urged the Prime Minister to take a decision soon.

Patkar is surviving on glucose and lemon juice after her arrest 10 days ago. On Friday, her blood pressure and glucose levels dipped further.

"We will wait and watch for the Prime Minister’s decision, hoping that it would not breach the trust that the Supreme Court has placed in his position and stature,” said Patkar.